Catching Up: Wednesday - January 21, PART 1

The day started very early as Tim and I readied for a day full of flights. We were picked up at the hotel around 7:00AM to head to Sabiha Gökçen Airport on the Asian side of Istanbul. While we could have walked ten minutes to the tram, taken it to the ferry and then ridden a bus, we found it easier (and just a few lira more expensive) to book a shuttle service. It was a wonderful option as it meant we got to sleep an extra hour, not schlep our bags all over and got to sleep a bit on the 90 minute journey.  I did manage to be awake when we crossed the Bosporus on the bridge connecting Europe and Asia. The view was spectacular.

When we arrived at the airport, I was surprised to be confronted with a security line as soon as we walked in the front door. After our bags were x-rayed and we passed through a metal detector (which kept going off, but no one really seemed to care – a common occurrence at every museum we entered in Istanbul, etc.), we went to check in with Pegasus airlines.

The check-in was easy, and we quickly cleared passport control and the security line to get to international departures before heading down three stories to our gate, which was at tarmac level. We passed a few hours sitting around eating snacks and watching planes board. With fifteen minutes before the flight was to take off, we discovered it was leaving from another part of the airport, up three escalators and down the hall. Upon realizing our flight was on “last call,” and we were nowhere near the gate, we made a run for it, with our bags. We bolted up three escalators and down the corridors, and as I rounded the corner for the new gate location my heart sank as the doors were closed for boarding.

Fortunately, the gate agent saw us coming and let us through. We headed down the jetway to a three-story staircase to run down, back to tarmac level, to catch a bus to our plane which was waiting at midfield. We jumped on the bus, and soon after it pulled away. It was all quite dramatic, and the closest I had ever come to missing a flight. Which would have been catastrophic considering it was the first of many flights that day!

Once at the plane, we boarded up stairs at the rear of the plane. The flight was uneventful, if a little uncomfortable. But, I slept most of the three and a half hours and for a super discount airline, the experience was fine.

The first plane took us to Zurich. Since we had booked the first flight separately on a different airline than the others of the day, we had to leave the international terminal, collect our bags, clear customs, recheck the bags on our new flights and re-clear security. The entire process bewildered the passport control lady, who couldn’t understand why we were going through passport control if we were only changing planes. She was a bit skeptical about us leaving, despite our explanation, and said that “two hours is not long enough.”

Nonetheless, she let us through and we got our bags and headed out of the airport to cross the street to the departures area. It was quite cold and there was still snow on the ground in some places.

We checked in, and with no one else at the airline’s desk, we were a bit confused as to the border guard’s claim that we didn’t have enough time. In fact, there were three security lines open and only four or five people among them. We breeze through, checked our gate number, and discovered that a sign said our concourse was 15-20 minutes away. But we caught a train (where there was just us and one other group), and were out to our gate with more than 90 minutes to spare. The train ride was funny as they played Swiss music punctuated by mooing and yodeling and other Swiss noises…

Concourse E was very quiet as we are the only flight leaving from the terminal. The area was very nice and very pretty with sleek glass, black terrazzo floors, polished concrete – very Swiss minimalist. I grabbed a snack at Starbucks, really the only dining option available, and enjoyed a caramel covered waffle.

The day’s events had taken us from Europe to Asia and back to Europe. Our second flight was a quick jaunt to Geneva, which took no more than half an hour. Along the way we had a great view of the snow-covered Alps. The stopover in Geneva meant a lot of people got off and a lot more got on, before we continued on to our next destination, bringing us to our third continent of the day, Africa! It was my first time on the continent… But more about that later!